GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Carl and Beverly Young took Bernice Taylor to her first fair last week. They got to the Clay County Fairgrounds nearly two hours before opening ceremonies because they wanted to enjoy every second of the day.

Despite being from Middleburg, the Youngs planned their trip five months earlier. They were first in line – and eager to get inside – when the fair’s board of directors arrived, Ashton Hernandez and Rosie Williams were honored as top fans and 94-year-old Lemmie Kirkland and fair chairman Bob Olson cut the ribbon to kick off 11 days of carnival rides, agriculture exhibits, concerts, entertainment and fair food.

The grand opening celebration accelerated when Rosie, who’s 7, was asked about her favorite part of the fair.

“I like the rides. I like the food,” she bellowed. “Can we go in now?”

Once the gates opened, fans flooded the fairgrounds, creating new logistical challenges to organizers.

A year after rain and floods essentially washed out the two of the first three days, fair-goers came back in record numbers this year.

“We are on track to break the (overall attendance) record,” said fair executive director Tasha Hyder.

In fact, attendance was up by more than 42,000 compared to the first four days of last year’s fair, Hyder said.

“The important thing to remember is last year we had a lot of rain,” Hyder said. “We lost a Saturday (due to flooded parking lots). Opening day was rainout. This year we’ve got beautiful weather and we’re going to keep on truckin’.”

Although the single-day record is 25,976 fans on March 29, 2019, records were broken for a Saturday (25,059), Sunday (23,475) and Tuesday (4,767).

“Traditionally, our final weekend is our biggest days,” Hyder said. “Our final weekend should be interesting. Of course, with that, we have to find space for everybody. I know we ran out of handicap parking on Sunday, but we made a quick adjustment and added a new row. As cars left, we only let people with handicap stickers in.”

Vendors were overwhelmed by the first weekend. Many struggled to keep pace with the demand for water, soft drinks and lemonade. In fact, some sold out of water by midday on Sunday.

“We were very busy,” said Peaches Baking Company’s Sam Peaches, whose food trailer makes the famous Amish doughnuts. “Normally, our line dies down about 10 (p.m.). But on Sunday, we still had a line at 11. A lot of that was because the concert let out. It’s been a very good week for us.”

Vendors get their drinks from Coca-Cola. The company delivers cases of water and soft drink syrup every day, except Sunday. On Monday, the distributed a tractor-trailer of drinks.

Workers said they distributed 420 cases of water last year. With 24 bottles in a case, that’s 10,080 bottles. This year, they expect to deliver more than 500 cases.

“We did three pallets of water (nearly 4,000 bottles) just on Monday,” one driver said.

The concerts also have been successful. Sunday’s show featuring Tracy Lawrence and the local band Cumberland had slow pre-sales, but a last-minute rush turned it into one of the biggest shows of the year.

“That was a last-minute splurge,” Hyder said. “That concert was trailing (in advance-sale tickets) and all of a sudden it was a huge crowd.”

Tuesday night’s show featuring Ashley McBryde and Lily Rose was the fair’s biggest draw.

“We’re fortunate everyone loves our fair,” Hyder said. “We made a comprehensive master plan two years ago. I hope everyone knows we’re doing something about it, but we can’t just do it tomorrow. We’re land-locked. People own land around us. The state operates the road (State Road 16).”

Backups on SR 16 were common on the weekends, but fair-goers generally were in the parking lot in about 30 minutes.”

The fair concludes on Sunday at 9 p.m.